The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (9 page)

While Breanna absorbed all of the
information, Eoghan gave a long ear-piercing whistle. A white
stallion with a black mane and tail cantered out from the trees.
When the horse stopped in front Bre, it bowed then rubbed against
Bre’s arm.

Bre smiled as she stared into the eyes
of the gorgeous steed. What she saw was a storm of grey clouds and
flashes of lightning that brewed in his eyes. He was wild and
dangerous at heart, a formidable force of nature. Bre knew the
horse would protect her and her family at any cost.

“What is his name? His eyes are like a
storm, should I call him Stormy?” Breanna chuckled at the name, but
the horse stomped his foot in disagreement. “Ha-ha, ok, not
Stormy.”

“His name is Whisper. He can move
quietly surprising your enemies. He is both aggressive and
defensive; whichever you need him to be.”

“Do you have any more animals to add
to my collection?” chuckled Breanna.

Eoghan smiled, displaying his
show-stopping smirk again. It made Breanna blush.

“
One more. Leora!” Eoghan
yelled.

A white and black tiger proudly walked
out from behind the Oak tree.

However unnerved the tiger made
Breanna at first, she felt a peaceful sensation sweep over her.
Breanna did not have to gaze into her eyes to understand who she
was. This striking feline was empathic, but she was more than that.
She could not only feel the emotions of those around her, but also
create them.

Eoghan immediately explained knowing
Leora was difficult to understand. “Leora, means peace in Greek.
She is a fighter due to being a tiger. However, her abilities to
you are to keep you calm in stressful situations. She can affect
your enemies as well. Her downside is that her powers are limited
to a certain amount of people. If she is attacking, she cannot use
her powers to calm you. If she is channeling a vast amount of your
allies, she cannot affect your enemies. Since she can feel your
emotions, she knows exactly what you need and where she needs to
be. This will give you a great advantage in battle.”

When Bre tried to ask a question,
Eoghan cut her off again. “You need to understand that you can
communicate with these animals, both verbally and
telepathically.”

Breanna looked at Eoghan as if he was
insane, “What exactly are you saying?”

“You belong to them and I know you
feel that. They are a part of you. Your soul is connected to
theirs. Your powers are their powers.”

Eoghan continued, “Now back to how
quickly we got here. Whisper carried us here. Your animals run
faster than any other animal known to man. We needed to get to a
safe place for you to recuperate. We arrived here in the Forest of
Tásúil yesterday. It translates as the Forest of Hope. It is a
sanctuary for Celts. No harm can come to any Celt while in the
forest. It provides a natural shield against enemies of the
Gàidheals, Druid clans like my own.”

“You’re not making any sense. I am not
a Druid, I’m Etruscan. Royal Etruscan,” Bre stubbornly folded her
arms across her chest.

Annoyed and exasperated, Eoghan said,
“You are not royalty of anything anymore.”

Breanna rolled her eyes
and gave an irritated sigh. “You’re telling me that I have powers,
powers only known to exist to the gods
and
that I lost my kingdom. You are
daft if you expect to believe any of this.”

“Breanna think back to when we tried
to leave the palace, when we tried to find the passage out of that
horrible room. What do you remember?”

Breanna tried to think back but her
memory was a little fuzzy. “I remember the walls and that large
dusty round table. Why?”

“What else?” Eoghan pressed
on.

“That’s it. That’s all I have for
you,” Breanna said, irritated. She turned and began to walk away,
not wanting to talk anymore, but Eoghan yanked her back to his
side.

“Leora,” Eoghan called to the tiger
while pushing Bre to the floor.

Leora rubbed against Bre’s shoulder.
Bre relaxed against her soft fur and listened to the rhythm of her
purr.

Images and emotions reemerged from the
night Bre left the palace. She saw Eoghan carrying her through the
passage and remembered feeling betrayed by her best friend and
worrying for her family while she searched the cold wall for an
exit back to them. Finally, Bre felt her weakness before she passed
out. Fear overcame her, but Leora controlled the amount. She only
needed to feel enough to remember what Eoghan wanted her to
see.

“Blue and white smoke clouding my
vision, so much fear…” said Bre in a weak and distant
voice.

“
Look through the smoke.
Tell me what you see,” Eoghan said as he reached down and grabbed
her hand. He gently rubbed it with his thumb.

Breanna shivered at his touch. “It’s
too thick, I can’t.”

“What do you see in the smoke?” Eoghan
repeated aggressively.

Eoghan’s frustration increased Bre’s
anger and allowed her to see through the smoke. Once her vision
cleared, she could see the throne room as if looking down from the
ceiling. In the room, Bre’s father, King Remus, and his soldiers
lay on the ground. Brian and Cailean stood apart with their palms
facing each other. Breanna understood they were casting a
protection spell, a strong and old spell. Blue light emanated from
the two men to surround the room. Then, Brian and Cailean collapsed
after shouting her name. She knew at that exact moment she too was
passing out in the hidden room.

Bre flung open her eyes, ripped her
hand out of Eoghan’s, and jerked away from Leora.
“Enough!”

“You needed to remember. Brian and
Cailean tapped into your powers. You do not realize how strong you
are or how to use your powers. Your mother is a…”

“I said enough, Eoghan!”

Eoghan furiously stood up and yelled
at Bre, “I am not one of your subjects, Breanna! You do not command
me!”

Eoghan turned away and ran his fingers
through his hair as he tried to regain composure. “Listen to me,
Breanna,” his voice almost pleading, “right now you need to accept
that I know more about you than you do. I am trying to help, but
you’re acting like a brat, a brat that I am tempted to strangle.”
He gritted his teeth on the last word and made a strangling motion
with his hands. Eoghan’s Celtic accent came through thickly when he
was angry, rolling his R’s in a profuse burr.

Breanna stood up outraged at Eoghan.
Before she could yell back, a red light charged towards her. The
light crashed into her chest slamming her into the Oak tree. She
leaned against the tree holding her head. A dizzy, overwhelming
sense of mourning filled her chest.

“Noooo!” Bre screamed as she fell to
her knees. Her heart pounded in her ears, breaths shallow in her
chest, and a searing pain surged in her head. White smoke
reappeared with swirls of emerald and silver.

Leora rushed forward and tried to
lessen Bre’s pain but Eoghan held the tiger back. A warm cushion
caught Breanna as she fell backwards. Clover came to her
rescue.

Before she completely passed out, she
heard Eoghan whisper, “Happy birthday, Your Highness.”

Chapter 8

Prolonging the
Foretold

R
emus ran to his friends. He could not bear to lose his wife
and his best friends in the same day. He would raid Hades to save
them if he had to. “I swear upon the gods, o’Conaills. If you leave
me in this mess I will hunt you in the Afterlife...whichever hell
you fall into!”

“No need to make idle threats, Remus,”
Brian groaned as he sat up. He nudged Cailean with his foot and
scoffed lightly at his brother laying in the fetal position. “Oi,
Cail, wake up. No time to rest.”

Remus helped the brothers to their
feet. “Why did you call out my daughter’s name? Is she in
danger?”

Brian and Cailean examined Remus
carefully to find the right words until they realized he was not
looking at them, but instead around the room.

Remus expected to see a young warrior
whose skills surpassed any Etrusci or Gàidheal soldier, a man who
rarely left the ó Conaills’ side. Eoghan MacBeatha was one of the
most loyal men Remus had ever met. He was shocked Eoghan was not
there when they needed him the most.

“Ah,” Brian said after he realized the
target of Remus’ search. “If Eoghan is not standing at my side,
where is he usually?”

Remus’ tension eased slightly when it
dawned on him to whom Eoghan was attending. It was as if Eoghan
read the king’s mind to protect Breanna before he even thought
it.

Brian said calming, “I gave Eoghan
strict instructions to protect her, not that I needed to. Breanna
is safe as long as she is with him.”

Once Remus was confident Eoghan would
protect Bre he asked, “What was that awful bang and blue light you
two conjured?”

“Protection spell,” Cailean
answered.

“A very old and very strong protection
spell,” Brian added. “We need it since the MacCathail clan broke
through the charms around the palace. The room is safe as long as
the spell doesn’t fail.”

Brian walked over to the throne room
door. He placed his hand on the large wooden door, closed his eyes,
and said, “They have traveled through the courtyard and are
searching for an entrance into the throne room.”

While Brian channeled the
events outside the throne room, Cailean and another Gàidheal
searched inside and barricaded secret passages like the one
Lysandros took with Alina. Cailean knew the passages could cause a
two front battle, if discovered. While scurrying to set up
barricades, Cailean ordered his clansmen into two divisions: first
were the Gàidheal archers, who would take the right flank closest
to the outer wall and doorway; second were the broadswords, who
would stand in the center of the room and form a tight half
circle
.

The Gaels removed their hoods and
pushed back the dark silver and black cloaks over their shoulders
to reveal green tunics with gold leaves embroidered along the
sleeves. They wore grey leather pants with various sizes of bronze
blades attached, fastened by gold hilts.

The archers held Oak bows that
flawlessly wove out from the handle and concluded in spirals.
Horsehair formed a strong flexible bowstring, and gold vines
wrapped around the curvaceous handle to complete the bows beauty.
Remus’ archers mirrored Cailean’s in their formation and his
Etrusci soldiers formed the Phalanx position. Their long silver
shields bearing Remus’ sigil of a wolf overlapped each other and
formed an impenetrable wall. Bronze spears and swords glistened in
the flickering light of the torches.

Each Etrusci soldier wore
black leather boots with bronze coverings from their ankles to
their knees. Their breastplates, constructed of layered sheets of
bronze covered by black leather, extended from their chests to
their backs, curving around their ribs just above their hips.
Strips of black leather decorated with small, silver wolves hung
down from the breastplate and protected their thighs. As they
moved, emerald green capes flowed down from their shoulders to the
back of their knees.
They were warriors
fit to the likeness of Ares.

The Gaels and Etrusci took their
places side by side in the throne room. The throne room, once
worthy of the gods, was now an opulent void filled with deafening
silence. Despite the impending battle, the windows cast a rainbow
of rich colors that danced on the marble floor and snow colored
tapestries. It was hypnotic against the stormy nerves of the
men.

“o’Conaill!
” Remus’ bellowed, his
voice echoing through the silence. “Where are they now?”

Brian still held his hand against the
door and gravely looked at Remus over his shoulder. “We have
minutes until they break our barricades.”

Remus, shocked at the news, asked,
“How could they break through so easily? The only way they could do
that is with a ram. I constructed my palace so it would be
impossible to carry one.”

A familiar voice rang out from behind
the door, “Remus! My dear brother, let me in. Let us talk this
through as proper kings.”

Remus’ breath caught in his chest as
pure shock made him stammer for words. Brian cleared his throat,
reminding Remus to breathe. His breathing returned, shallow from
disbelief at who stood behind the door. He gently rubbed his chest
with the heel of his palm, feeling his heart shatter into thousands
of pieces.

Remus tried to regain control over his
demeanor. He took a deep breath, calmed his erratic breathing, and
wiped the look of betrayal from his face.

“How big a fool do you take me for,
Romulus?” Remus’ voice was stern, refusing to give Romulus
satisfaction in hearing his pain.

“Do you truly want me to answer that,
Remmy?” Romulus chuckled.

“You have attacked my house and
family. You do not expect me to open the door so we can talk, do
you?”

“Remus, I am giving you the courtesy
of discussion because you are my twin. We loved each other once,”
Romulus said nostalgically.